In this issue of the Jefferson Journal, you can read one such story. The feature is written by JPR reporter Juliet Grable and focuses on the Shasta Indian Nation, a relatively small tribe in Northern California that currently has no land. Her article describes how this group of people lost their home when the dams were built. Their village was literally flooded when Iron Gate Dam and the reservoir behind it was constructed. Now that the lake is going to be drained and the land exposed, the Shasta Indian Nation have a chance at getting some of their homeland back for the first time in a century (The details of who ultimately gets that land, which will initially be given to the states of Oregon and California, are still very much uncertain).
Reporting this story took time. I’m lucky to be able to work with reporters like Juliet who are dedicated to reporting sensitive stories carefully and who want to do justice to the people in them. Besides putting in time, Juliet also joined the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources for a week of in-depth conversations with the people who live throughout the Klamath Basin watershed and who are at the center of the dam removal project. Juliet was joined by a dozen other reporters including those from the Klamath Falls Herald and News and Oregon Public Broadcasting.
There are other literal and figurative stories of home connected to the Klamath watershed. Earlier this year, we focused on the community around Copco Lake, where residents worry that their homes could be damaged by dam removal, including very real concerns like wells drying up, foundations cracking or homes slumping downhill when the reservoirs are drained to make way for a free-flowing Klamath River. Tight-knit farming communities in Tulelake and Klamath Falls have been struggling with years of drought that threatens their way of life. The Yurok, Karuk, Hoopa and Klamath Tribes are determined to protect endangered salmon and suckers, fish that are deeply connected to the origins of their cultures in the Klamath Basin. Some of these groups will be more or less affected by dam removal. The reservoirs are not used to irrigate farmland and dam removal is down river from the lake where the Klamath Tribes live. But they are all tied together by a mutual need to preserve the places they call home.
If all goes according to plan, the most dramatic part of this project will begin after the new year. That’s when dam contractors will do the equivalent of pulling a massive plug in a bathtub, draining the contents of the three reservoirs and a century worth of sediment downriver. At JPR, we’ve been making the investment in this series to help readers understand this decades-long story that affects many communities in this place we all call home.